This invention relates to interactive media guidance systems and more particularly to interactive media guidance systems having multiple devices.
User equipment devices located in a home network may be able to share content and program guide settings with other user equipment devices in the home network. For example, a user equipment device located in a home network may be allowed to play a recorded television program stored on another user equipment device in the home network. The ability of user equipment devices in home networks to share content and data is discussed in greater detail in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/356,161, filed Jul. 16, 1999, which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.
Within a home network, user equipment devices may have different capabilities. User equipment devices may be configured to display different types of content and run different types of software. In addition, user equipment devices may have different bandwidth capabilities for receiving data.
For example, user equipment devices in a home network may or may not be configured to display high-definition content. In this example, a user equipment device in the home network that is not configured to display high-definition content may not be able to view a high-definition recording stored on another user equipment device in the home network.
In another example, user equipment devices in a home network may be compatible with different types of software. In this example, a user equipment device may not be able to run an interactive application developed for another user equipment device.
In yet another example, user equipment devices in a home network may have different bandwidth capabilities. In this example, a user equipment device with a small bandwidth may not be able to download data that requires a large amount of storage space.